I thought Teddy made some great points, unquestionably Tyson's greatest weakness was mental. I thought his point about Tyson meeting resistance was correct, Tyson never really handled it.
So a big, strong, hard hitting heavyweight like Ruddock refusing to back down and throwing bombs every second he was in there, landing some that twisted Tyson's head around, is what? No resistance? Its funny how Tyson detractors have the blinders on to any fight he actually overcame resistance to win and somehow have convinced themselves that he caved in when he met resistance. I never saw Sonny Liston take the punishment Tyson stuck around for against either Holyfield or Lewis. People act like Sonny walked through fire because he had one shaky round against Cleveland Williams. Id hate to see poor Sonny deal with Ruddock the night Tyson fought him. You could go down the list but the idea that Tyson folded when someone gave him resistance is nonsense.
He could have fought a bunch of 185 pound powderpuffs, taken the belts hostage for 4 years while banging starlets and lost to the first boxer he faced afterward and we would be calling him a ferocious warrior. No disrespect to any former champs but the moving of the goal posts to measure who is and who is not great, and who had and who did not have heart is pretty amusing.
No credibility whatsoever coming from a trainer who has been fired by each and every fighter he ever worked with. Definately resentful that he missed out cashing in on Tyson like all the other leaches during his career.
Teddy radiates bitter malevolence. What an unpleasant 'person'. His eyes are totally dead and devoid of light, his face that of a weather-beaten gargoyle. He gets pissed in a flash and can't let go of anything. Tyson has grown up way more than Teddy ever did.
Judging Ruddock on the Tyson fights, Liston might have to settle for points. Ruddock wasn't going down for no one in them matches and the "Smash" could rattle anyone in the history of boxing
You ever hear of the mind games he played too with his fighters ?? Its a wonder he wasn't sparked by one of them, just plain weird Teddy Atlas
In a 15 round fight Razor ain't hearing a bell. His defense was awful and Liston's jab would find his face like bees around honey. He gets stopped , saved by the ref.
Liston never beat anyone with the combination of size, power, durability and skill of Ruddock and that includes Cleveland Williams who Liston fans will have you believe was some monster despite failing to defeat anyone of note. In a thread denigrating someone as a front runner Liston should be hiding in the weeds and hoping his name doesnt get mentioned because he isnt exactly known for his lion heart. Like I said, and maybe this time you can answer, when did he suffer the punishment Tyson did against Lewis and Holyfield and continue to fight? Sorry but I dont consider getting your jaw broken by mediocre light heavyweight Marty Marshall a real comparison to late round stoppages to full fledged great heavyweights. Quitting on your stool after trying to blind a guy because the going got tough doesnt convince me that Listons heart was in Tysons class...
While I'm not the biggest Teddy Atlas fan, it seems odd to criticize him for saying stuff that appears to have some truth to it because he's a bit over the top and exaggerates a bit. Yes he's self serving about things, and yes he owes a good portion of his success to Tyson. That doesn't preclude him from making seemingly correct observations about Tyson. Not all true, but there was certainly some true there.
Teddy Atlas is a fun guy to listen talk and does know boxing but some things he says IMO are complete bull****. This I don't agree with as Tyson in his prime I believe was a great fighter and had some signature wins beating Spinks and an aging Holmes. I could see why the argument could be made by a guy like Teddy Atlas though as Tyson never had the real signature victory against a great fighter in his prime.
